This is America man… you can have your electric car and your freedom too.
There’s no doubt about it, the Chevy Volt sounds best when you’re just selling the concept. And no wonder: the concept came was born of Bob Lutz’s unique insight into the American psychology… not to mention a psychologically-charged desire to rub the Prius’s nose in some mud. But what nobody seems to be pointing out is the fact that the flip side of being “all things to all people” is fundamental compromise. And in the case of the Volt, the risk is that it won’t be as good of an electric car as the Leaf and it won’t be as good of a gas-powered car as any other hybrid. If GM’s pitch that Volt equals EV plus Freedom doesn’t take, the car will go nowhere fast… so how does the first attempt strike you?
I gotta say, this works for me. I commute about 15 miles into Manhattan each morning, but every few weeks drive to New Hampshire to visit family, and a firm range ceiling would be a deal-killer for me. It sounds like the Leaf is a better car in a lot of ways, but the great handling and more practical back seat won’t be very useful when I’m stuck on the Merritt Parkway and I’ve run out of juice.
You should do some research before getting a plug-in. The US DOE lists Connecticut as having an average electric rate of 19.03 cents per kwh. With the Merritt’s terrain and traffic you’re unlikely to get even close to optimal range. A full charge for a Volt at CTs average rate costs $2.28 and if you only get 30 miles range out of that charge, you’d be better off with a conventional hybrid.
Way to kill a car with a commercial. Bo-o-o-oring…
This is what Chevy is good at. BS’ing about cars you can’t buy.
Chevy shovels it deep.
Needs more hugging polar bears.
they say “Chevy Runs Deep”, I say “Chevy’s Run Dumb”.
The take away message from the commercial is: “Americans don’t plan well. Better have a back up (generator).”
You do have to admit that you can’t go on a long road trip with a pure EV no matter how well you plan. More like Americans have lousy or no public transport, so better have a backup generator.
I didn’t think about public transportation based on this commercial. Maybe in rural areas where that is a problem that message resonates, I don’t know how that makes the Volt superior to competing cars. When they mention wayfarers and nomads, it makes us sound like a nation of transients. “You don’t know where you’re going, but at least our electric car goes far!”
“Chevy shovels it deep.”
The country needs ditch diggers, too.
Just don’t expect a livable wage or any benefits.
Applicability of my reply to anything logical highly dubious but that has never been a factor when the Disgruntled Old Coot with dirt vice a lawn surrounding the shanty mumbles in a written word manner.
Gotta go scout out some new dumpster diving locales and ponder predicaments that are escalating for the working and non-working-poor ranks of an ever-growing segment of the populace.
Shout of you have a ditch needing dug but do not expect a quick completion time due to physical constraints invading the Old Cot carcass.
Alms for the poor?
And stay off my dirt.
…Huh?
The ad works for me and it clearly sticks it to the Nissan Leaf since with that car you cannot have any detours or risked being stranded. At least the Volt runs electric for your normal commute (assuming it is like 75% of Americans and is 20 miles or less one way) and if you detour then you still get a good 35mpg.
All the bitching about the Volt seems out of place. An American company made this first, made it whilst going through bankcrupcy and it is generation 1. It will get better, cheaper, more efficient – just like the Prius did.
+1. Yes, the Volt is way too expensive and it didn’t hit it’s benchmarks, but according to Ed’s review it doesn’t suck, and for a first-gen revolutionary product from anyone, especially GM, that’s an achievement. I liked the ad, just enough appeal to patriotism without jumping into the apple-pie pablum Chevy, and others, frequently wallow in.
> It will get better, cheaper, more efficient
No doubt. But will the “better, cheaper, more efficient” version be from GM or some other company?
How easy it is to spin:
http://leafstations.com/2010/05/22/nissan-leaf-preparing-charging-infrastructure/
Or charge at work
http://leafstations.com/2010/10/02/ouc-will-install-free-nissan-leaf-charging-station-at-your-business/
Then there is, um. this
http://www.egmcartech.com/2010/09/16/700-quick-charge-option-on-nissan-leaf-allows-80-charge-in-30-mins/
Fear mongering is not healthy.
“…assuming it is like 75% of Americans and is 20 miles or less one way…”
I expect that percentage becomes *much* smaller after appropriate adjustments are made for traffic, hills, temperatures, etc.
So the Volt may be perfect if you live somewhere with no hills, no traffic, year-round warm temps, and low electrical rates.
IOW, maybe 5% of the U.S.?
Oh, and don’t forget — GM warranties are pretty much fake, as a quick google search reveals…
Then again, probably lots of Americans blow more than $40k on a Vegas vacation (or spend it on drugs, or hookers, or whatever). I guess it’s all relative.
Everybody seems to understand that car buying is as much an emotional decision (and often more so) than a pure dollars and cents proposition… except when it comes to the Volt. If my future commute is as short as it could be you bet I would look at the Volt when it comes time to replace my TDI, which was ideal for my longish (45 miles each way) commute. Is this a good decision based exclusively on logic and economics? Probably not, but if life were only about making decisions based on logic and economics we wouldn’t have Ferraris or SUVs or whatever.
One of the things to realize here is that this ad has nothing to do with selling the Volt. GM is only making 10K of them and they’ll sell all of those without a single commercial.
This ad’s purpose is purely the glorification of GM as an AMERICAN company… who are doing something better than those damn’d Japanese (theoretically anyhow). It’s purely a “come home to an American brand exercise.
Oh “Man”, they’re kidding, right?….
So the Volt’s gunna be GM’s “Easy Rider”?….|
Hang on – if you let freedom ring, doesn’t that mean you’re not going to answer it?
Ouch!
Anyone else think the Volt’s headlights and driving lights bear an unfortunate resemblance to a Pontiac Sunfire? (:05-:07)
I’ve done video work in some agencies and this spot just screams with every tick that these “creatives” probably have. Make little spots with all the cues of an indie movie – jangly guitars, clooney vo, it’s all there. This looks like a pitch video someone would cut for a prospective client, not a campaign. I’m not an ad-person, but what is the message? Is it practicality or is it some kind of Easy Rider thing? Either way, WTF. You want to sell practicality when you’re dealing with a $41,000 vanity vehicle? That’s not going to keep anyone away from a Prius. And what the hell is all this open-road, soul-of-america bullshit? We’re hearing that “poetry” while watching a couple of button-down hipster yuppies tool around in the car – it doesn’t exactly take. It seems to me that if they want to move an expensive status-symbol like this they either need to sell it as the coolest toy in the world, or the most virtuous greener-than-a-Prius invention in the history of mankind. This does neither.